I have had several of my friends and clients ask me about “The Cloud”. It seems that most of them have at least a vague idea of what cloud services consist of, but fail to really understand the advantages. A smaller number of them believe that the primary benefit of cloud services is the fact that data is backed up remotely and securely – which is true, but fails to grasp the full scope of cloud services such as Office365. They doubted whether the information was secure, and whether they could really trust cloud servers to actually be private.

We reminded them that they are already using “The Cloud” even though they didn’t realize it. I explained to them that their email server was technically a Cloud service and that they was already trusting the cloud with her most private communications.

So we ask ourselves: “Why the Cloud?”

Choosing your company’s mail hosting and collaboration solution is one of the most important information technology decisions you will need to make. After all, productivity and workflow are directly affected by the way in which your employees communicate with one another, and any bottlenecks or problems that arise within your email or collaboration software could cause company-wide problems.

Using in-house mail servers has long been a popular option for small and large businesses alike. The idea was that having these servers physically located on-site would improve the reliability of the servers and maximize the control that a company could have over its communication assets. More recently, Google has come out with free and paid collaboration tools – collectively known as Google Apps – that could be used for low or no monthly payments.

In practice, however, there are some very real concerns over the use of in-house mail servers and even over the use of Google Apps. Perhaps the greatest risk with housing your own email servers is the fact that they require frequent updates and maintenance, which means paying a dedicated IT team responsible for keeping servers running along with the cost of hardware purchases and upgrades. There is also the risk of downtime if any of the servers go offline, particularly during off-business hours. With Google Apps , the problem is that this suite of solutions, while certainly viable for some situations, simply lacks the simplicity, functionality and ubiquity necessary in many business environments.

Microsoft Office has been the industry leader for decades for good reason. Microsoft’s Productivity Suite not only set the standard for document formats around the world, but it has also led with functionality and ease of use.

Office365 is an extension and expansion of the original Microsoft Office Suite. In addition to having constant access to the latest versions of Office, Office365 users have access to an increasingly robust cloud solution that includes, among other things, email, storage and arguably the most reliable, secure and enterprise-minded collaboration tools on the market.

For many business owners and executives, the biggest challenge is the seemingly overwhelming task of migrating their companies’ information to the cloud.

Cloud migration made easier

Largely in response to concerns over the challenge of migration, managed service providers have offered a cloud migration solution that addresses the challenge of bringing all of your company’s information over to an Office365 environment reliably and securely. One example of the tools that managed service providers use to migrate that information is SkyKick, which is a comprehensive tool that ensures that each aspect of your company’s information (including cloud drives, email accounts and anything else being migrated to the Office365 environment) is transferred with a minimal interruption of service.

For more information about managed services in Los Angeles, California, or for general questions about cloud migration, including how a managed service provider can ensure a seamless transition to an Office365 environment, please take a look at our website by visiting us at https://www.lastlinesolutions.com or call us at (310) 286-0111